In Saudi Arabia, a Resurgence of SufismMystical Sect of Islam Finds Its Voice in More Tolerant Post-9/11 Era

By Faiza Saleh AmbahSpecial to The Washington PostTuesday, May 2, 2006

JIDDAH, Saudi Arabia -- A hush came over the crowd as the young man sitting cross-legged on the floor picked up the microphone and sang, a cappella, a poem about Islam's prophet Muhammad. His eyes shut tight, his head covered by an orange-and-white turban, he crooned with barely contained ardor of how the world rejoiced and lights filled the skies the day the prophet was born.

The men attending the mawlid -- a celebration of the birth and life of Muhammad -- sat on colorful rugs, rocking gently back and forth, while the women, on the upper floor watching via a large projection screen, passed around boxes of tissues and wiped tears from their eyes.

The centuries-old mawlid, a mainstay of the more spiritual and often mystic Sufi Islam, was until recently viewed as heretical and banned by Saudi Arabia's official religious establishment, the ultraconservative Wahhabis. But a new atmosphere of increased religious tolerance has spurred a resurgence of Sufism and brought the once-underground Sufis and their rituals out in the open.

Analysts and some Sufis partly credit reaction to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States for the atmosphere that has made the changes possible. When it was discovered that 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudi, the kingdom's strict Wahhabi doctrine -- which had banned all other sects and schools of thought -- came under intense scrutiny from inside and outside the country. The newfound tolerance Sufis have come to enjoy is perhaps one of the most concrete outcomes of that shift.

"This is one of the blessings of September 11. It put the brakes on the [Wahhabi] practice of takfir , excommunicating everyone who didn't exactly follow their creed," said Sayed Habib Adnan, a 33-year-old Sufi teacher. The government "realized that maybe enforcing one religious belief over all others was not such a good idea."ad_icon

When Adnan moved to Saudi Arabia from his native Yemen four years ago, Sufi gatherings were often clandestine, sometimes held in orchards outside the city, or in basements and without microphones, for fear of drawing attention. "I couldn't wear this," he said, pointing to his turban. "Or this," he said, pulling at his white cotton overcoat. "Or I would be branded a Sufi. You couldn't even say the word 'Sufi.' It was something underground, dangerous, like talking about drugs."

Sufis here say they are not a separate sect or followers of a separate religion, but adherents to a way of life based on the Muslim concept of ihsan . Muhammad explained ihsan to the angel Gabriel as "worshiping God as if you see Him. Because if you don't see Him, He sees you." Another Sufi characteristic is a strong belief in the power of blessings from the prophet, his close relatives and his companions.

Sufism had previously been predominant in Hejaz, the western region of Saudi Arabia, which includes Muhammad's birthplace, Mecca; Medina, where he is buried; and the Red Sea port city of Jiddah. Muslims prayed often at shrines where the prophet's daughter Fatima, his wife Khadija and his companions were buried. Mawlids were public affairs with entire cities decked out in lights, and parades and festivities commemorating the prophet's birthday and his ascension to Jerusalem.

When the al-Saud family that would later come to rule Saudi Arabia took over Hejaz in the 1920s, the Wahhabis banned mawlids as a form of heresy and destroyed the historic shrines of Khadija, Fatima and the prophet's companions, fearing they would lead to idolatry and polytheism.

Wahhabis, crucial allies in the Saud conquest of the disparate regions that became Saudi Arabia in 1932, were awarded control of religious affairs.

Discrimination against Sufis, among others, intensified after armed Wahhabi extremists took over Mecca's Grand Mosque in 1979, demanding that a more puritanical form of Islam be applied in the country. Though the government quelled the uprising and executed its leaders, authorities were shaken by the incident, and lest other Wahhabis defy them, they allowed them more rein.

Soon after, extremist clerics issued a religious edict, or fatwa, declaring Sufi's spiritual leader, Muhammad Alawi Malki, a nonbeliever. He was removed from his teaching position, banned from giving lessons at the Grand Mosque, where both his father and grandfather had taught, and interrogated by the religious police and the Interior Ministry. After Malki was later attacked by a throng of radicals incensed at his presence in the mosque, he could pray there only under armed guard.

Meanwhile, thousands of cassettes and booklets circulated calling Sufis "grave-lovers" and dangerous infidels who had to be stopped before they made a comeback. Their salons were raided, and those caught with Sufi literature were often arrested or jailed.

The tide finally turned in 2003, with the new atmosphere that took hold following the Sept. 11 attacks, when the future King Abdullah, then the crown prince, held a series of meetings to acknowledge the country's diverse sects and schools of thought. One of the guests was Sufi leader Malki. When he died the following year, Abdullah and the powerful defense and interior ministers attended his funeral. The rehabilitation of his legacy was almost complete.

"We were then upgraded from infidels, to people who are ignorant and practicing their religion wrong," said Wasif Kabli, a 59-year-old businessman.

But many Sufis complain that despite outward appearances, Wahhabis continue to destroy shrines in and around their holy places, their salons continue to be raided and their literature is still banned.

Wahhabis and Sufis view Islam from opposite directions. To Wahhabis, who emerged from the kingdom's stark, harsh desert, a believer's relationship can be only directly with God. To them, Sufis' celebrations of the prophet's life smack of idolatry, and supplications to him, his relatives and companions appear to replace or bypass the link with God.

Sufis answer that the prophet celebrated his own birthday by fasting on Mondays, that he himself offered to intervene with God on behalf of Muslims and that he could often be found in the evenings at the grave sites of his wives and companions.

Last month, on the occasion of the prophet's birthday, a crowd of more than 1,000 gathered to celebrate at a private residence. Sufi books, cassettes and DVDs were selling out in one corner of the large garden where the event was held. Adnan, the Sufi teacher, was one of four speakers who addressed the crowd. He asked: Why are we Sufis always on the defensive? "Nobody asks [soccer] fans for religious proof that sanctifies their gatherings at the stadium because of their devotion to their team," he said. "How come we are always asked for an explanation of our devotion to our beloved prophet?"

Muhammad Jastaniya, a 20-year-old economics major and part of a new wave of young Saudis who have embraced Sufism, said what drew him was the focus on God.

On a recent moonlit evening, Jastaniya sipped sugary mint tea with his friends on rugs spread on the rooftop of a Zawiya, or lodge where Sufis go to meditate, chant or sit in on lessons. The words 'God' and 'Muhammad' were written in green neon lights, and Islam's 99 names for God were stenciled in black paint around the wall. "To be a Sufi is to clear your heart of everything but God," he explained. "The Islam we were taught here is like a body without a soul. Sufism is the soul. It's not an alternative religion -- it can contain all Muslims."

That thought seems to be taking hold, even in faraway corners.

Salman al-Odah, the country's most popular puritanical cleric, who was jailed in the 1990s for opposing the presence of U.S. troops in the kingdom, accepted an invitation to visit Sufi cleric Abdallah Fadaaq's mawlid and lesson last week. The scene at Fadaaq's house was an obvious sign of conciliation.

Al-Odah sat with his hands neatly folded in his lap, wearing a red-and-white checkered headdress and clear wraparound glasses and sporting the short scraggly beard that indicates a conservative. Fadaaq, who at 39 is emerging as the new symbol of Hejazi Sufism, wore the white turban, the white overcoat and shawl typical of Sufis, wooden prayer beads resting on his lap. "It's true that there are differences between the way people practice their faith in this country, and this is an indication that people are using their minds and thinking, which is a good thing," Fadaaq said. "But what we should concentrate on are the expanses that bring us together, like the prophet. We must take advantage of what we have in common."

Al-Sayyid Muhammad al-Hasan ibn Alawi ibn Abbas ibn Abd al-Aziz al-Maliki (1947 - 2004) was a prominent Sunni Islamic Scholar and Sufi Teacher from Saudi Arabia. He was born in Mecca to a family of well known scholars who, like himself, taught in the Sacred Mosque. The Maliki family is one of the most respected families in Makkah and has produced great scholars, who have taught in the Haram of Makkah for centuries. With his fathers instruction, he also studied and mastered the various traditional Islamic sciences of Aqidah, Tafsir, Hadith, Fiqh, Usul al-fiqh, Mustalah, Nahw, etc. at the feet of other great scholars of Makkah, as well as Madinah, all of whom granted him full Ijazah (certification) to teach these sciences to others. Some of the scholars from whom he obtained ijazahs and chains of transmission from include: Shaikh Muhammad Zakar�y� , Shaikh Ahmad Mashhur Al-Haddad, Shaykh Hasanain Makhlouf,Shaykh Hasan bin Mohammed Al Mashat ,Shaykh Mufti Mustafa Raza Khan Barelwi ,Shaykh Abu Wafa Afghani Hyderabadi, Shaykh Mohammed Khaleel Tayba, Moulana Dya al-Din al-Madani Qadiri Rizvi, Al-Habib Abdul Qader Al Saqqaf ,Shaykh Saleh bin Mohammed Al Jafari, Al-Habib Ahmed Mashur Al-Haddad and numerous others from every Part of the World.

By the age of 15, the Sayyid was already teaching the books of Hadith and Fiqh in the Haram of Makkah to fellow students, by the orders of his teachers.

After finishing his traditional education in his hometown of Makkah, he was sent by his father to study at the esteemed Al-Azhar University of Egypt.

He received his Ph.D. from the Azhar at the age of 25, making him the first and youngest Saudi to earn a Ph.D. from there.

His thesis on Hadith was rated excellent and highly praised by the eminent Ulama of the Azhar at that time, such as Imam Abu-Zahrah.

Five of the Sayyid's ancestors have been the Maliki Imams of the Haram of Makkah. His grandfather, al-Sayyid Abbas al-Maliki was the Mufti and Qadi of Makkah and the Imam and Khatib of the Haram. He held this position during the Ottoman then Hashemite times, and continued to hold it after the Saudi Kingdom was established too. The late King Abd-al-Aziz bin Sa`ud had great respect for him.

His father, al-Sayyid Alawi al-Maliki was considered one of the greatest Ulama of Makkah in the previous century. He taught the various traditional Islamic sciences in the Haram of Makkah for nearly 40 years.

Hundreds of students from all over the Islamic world benefited from his lessons in the Haram and many hold key religious positions in their lands today.

The King Faisal of Saudi Arabia would not make any decision on Makkah without consulting al-Sayyid Alawi.

He died in 2004 and his funeral was the biggest in Makkah in a 100 years. For the next three days after his death, the local Saudi radio stations played the holy Qur'an only. This was something that was done only for him.

Sayyid Abbas is also a learned scholar but is better known for his beautiful voice and as the topmost Qasidah reciter of Saudi Arabia.

His Teaching Career

The Sayyid, like all traditional Shaykhs, and like his ancestors before him, taught a number of students at his own residence, providing them with food, drink, shelter, clothes, books and everything else they need. In return, they are only required to follow the rules and etiquette of students of sacred knowledge. These students usually stayed with him for many years, learning the various branches of Islamic knowledge, then return to their lands.

Hundreds of his students have become savants of Islamic knowledge and spirituality in their own countries, particularly Saudi Arabia Indonesia, Malaysia,South Africa,Turkey Egypt, Yemen and Dubai.

After returning from the Azhar he was an appointed professor of Sharia at the Umm al-Qura University in Makkah, where he taught from 1970.

In 1971, after his father's death, the scholars of Makkah asked him to accept his father's position as a teacher in the Haram, which he did. Thus, he sat on the Chair from which his family had taught for more than century.

He also taught in the Haram of Madinah occasionally. His lessons were the largest attended lessons in the Two Harams.

In the early eighties, he relinquished his teaching position in the Umm al-Qura University as well as his ancestral chair of teaching in the Haram, due to the Fatwas of some scholars of the Wahhabi sect, who considered his presence a threat to their ideology and authority.

From that time until his death, he taught the great books of Hadith, Fiqh, Tafsir and Tasawwuf at his home and mosque on al-Maliki street in the Rusayfah district of Makkah, and his public lessons, between Maghrib and Isha'a, were attended by no less than 500 people daily. Many students from the University used to attend his lessons in the evenings. Even the night before he died, his lesson was well-attended. Even today his Son Al Sayyid Ahmed Bin Muhammed Bin Alawi Al Maliki Carries out his Fathers teaching Chair and give lessons in there Home in Rusafyah District of Makkah Al Mukkaramah .

Sayyid Muhammad Alawi al-Maliki was highly respected by the Saudi government and was often consulted by the King himself on important affairs. He was also nominated as the head judge at the international Qira'it (Qur'anic reading) competition in Makkah for three consecutive years.

His Writings

The Sayyid was a prolific writer and has produced close to one hundred books. He has written on a variety of religious, legal, social and historical topics and many of his books are considered masterpieces on the subject and are prescribed textbooks in Islamic institutes around the world. According to one of his students, Shaykh Muhamad Fuad Kamaludin, a Muslim scholar from Malaysia, Dr Muhammad Alawi al-Maliki can write up a book of 150 pages just in one night.

�This is a selected list of the works the learned Sayyid has authored and published. There are many other publications that are not mentioned and many works that are still to be published.

�Many of the Sayyid's works have been translated into foreign languages including English and Urdu.

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Whereas Salafism (known to some as Wahhabism) is the official branch of Islam in Saudi Arabia, al-Maliki adhered to traditionalist Islam, following the Maliki school of Islamic jurisprudence, and was a renowned teacher of Sufism.Because of this difference with the Wahhabi religious establishment, al-Maliki had been accused of heresy, banned from preaching at the Sacred Mosque, had his passport revoked, and had been arrested. His Famous Students Include his Son Al-Sayyid Ahmed Bin Muhammed Bin Alawi Al Maliki who still teaches at his Family Residence in Makkah Everyday and Al-Sayyid Abduallah Fadaaq another Famous Saudi Sunni Scholar Based in Jeddah who also teaches at his Residence in Jeddah and another Famous Scholar includes Al Habib Ali Al Jifri who is one of the Most Famous Islamic Personalities on Middle Eastern Channels and is a Great Scholar and Sufi Master of the Ba Alawi Tariqa of Sufism and Runs Islamic University Dar Al Mustafa in Tarim ,Yemen and also runs a Islamic Center in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and the Famous Tabah Institute of Islamic Studies in Abu Dhabi, UAE. and another Famous Student Al Habib Umar Bin Hafeez another Famous Islamic Scholar and Sufi Master of Ba Alawi Tariqa of Sufism.